Hay-Drummond-Hay, Peter, Flying Officer, 90321, 609 Squadron, Royal Air Force (Auxiliary Air Force) Died 9th July 1940 aged 31 Son of Edward and Margaret Hay-Drummond-Hay; husband of Clare Margaret Hay-Drummond-Hay Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey
Page 38: (para 3) “The splitting of his force between Middle Wallop and Warmwell meant a penny-packet operation which Darley detested. It led to the squadron’s first losses under his command. Tuesday 9th July was a wet day, and after a false alarm in the morning two of the pilots on stand-by at Warmwell, Peter Drummond-Hay and David Crook, both auxiliaries, sat for much of the afternoon planning the trip they were to make the next day, when, being off duty, … Then at 6.30 pm a section of three Spitfires was ordered up to patrol off Weymouth.
(para 4) “Spotting some Junkers 87 Stuka dive-bombers attacking a convoy, they raced after them. …Crook…nearly crashed his Spitfire when he got back to Warmwell… Since the attack he had seen nothing of the others.”
(para 5) “One of them, in fact, was missing. It was Crook’s friend Peter Drummond-Hay. He had shot down a Messerschmitt 109, as was later confirmed, then been shot down himself.”
(para 6) “Returning to Middle Wallop that night, Crook, who had been rooming with Drummond-Hay, moved into the cubicle next door. The vision of his friend lying in his cockpit at the bottom of the Channel haunted him all night.”
Died 9th July 1940 aged 31
Son of Edward and Margaret Hay-Drummond-Hay; husband of Clare Margaret Hay-Drummond-Hay
Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey
Extract from: “That Eternal Summer” Unknown Stories from the Battle of Britain by Ralph Barker (http://members.lycos.co.uk/tothers/battleofbritain.htm)
Page 38:
(para 3) “The splitting of his force between Middle Wallop and Warmwell meant a penny-packet operation which Darley detested. It led to the squadron’s first losses under his command. Tuesday 9th July was a wet day, and after a false alarm in the morning two of the pilots on stand-by at Warmwell, Peter Drummond-Hay and David Crook, both auxiliaries, sat for much of the afternoon planning the trip they were to make the next day, when, being off duty, … Then at 6.30 pm a section of three Spitfires was ordered up to patrol off Weymouth.
(para 4) “Spotting some Junkers 87 Stuka dive-bombers attacking a convoy, they raced after them. …Crook…nearly crashed his Spitfire when he got back to Warmwell… Since the attack he had seen nothing of the others.”
(para 5) “One of them, in fact, was missing. It was Crook’s friend Peter Drummond-Hay. He had shot down a Messerschmitt 109, as was later confirmed, then been shot down himself.”
(para 6) “Returning to Middle Wallop that night, Crook, who had been rooming with Drummond-Hay, moved into the cubicle next door. The vision of his friend lying in his cockpit at the bottom of the Channel haunted him all night.”
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